In today's workplace, employees increasingly expect to be able to use personal smartphones, tablets, laptop computers, and other devices on company networks to access company resources like email, file servers, and databases. This phenomenon is sometimes called “Bring Your Own Device”, or “BYOD”.
Many companies that allow this behavior have implemented security policies to ensure that network security is not compromised and/or that confidential information may be inhibited from being stolen. As a condition for being allowed to use the BYOD device on the company network, employees may configure their devices with specific device policy settings that accord with the demands of the company's security policy. Similar device policy settings controls are also emerging for consumer use, particularly for parental control of children's devices.